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Hey all!

Long story made short for the background of this project: I've been playing Infinity for years but have missed 40k quite sorely. With the new edition and 180 turn by GW with their public outreach and ease of getting into the game with the new edition (I've missed the simplicity of pumping my enemies full of D6's. Now all the books are cheaper and I learned how to play in about 15 minutes!), I've decided to hop back in!

I decided to make a topic to track my progress and also provide motivation to get my butt in gear and actually see this project through (Gave myself an easy break by starting at 750 points )

I've always wanted to play as Stormtroopers so I cobbled together a simple 750pt Tempestus Scion air cavalry army. It's compromised of about 30 stormtroopers, plasma guns out the wazoo, a Vulture, and a pair of Vendettas.

However, I'm poor and can't actually afford an air cavalry army, let alone that many Scions. So instead, I bartered some old IG grunts off of my brother with the goal to convert these long neglected Cadians into a "modern-themed" Scion force.



Beautiful, aren't they?

The goal is to bathe these guys in Green cleaner and scrub them down. Then off with their heads (And arms, in the case of the flamers and GL's because who uses those, right guys?) and on with the new! I'll be using the following:


Tactical Scopes by Anvil Industries!


Extra tactical Bergen Backpacks also by Anvil Industries!


Nothing says accuracy like ACOG scopes and gasmasks (No wonder their effective range is only 18"). Ballistic helmet+gasmask heads by Pig Iron!

I went ahead and did a quick equipment dry-fit test to get a better idea what it'll look like.





(I ran out of time to properly dry-fit the helmet. As you can see, the head removal was not clean as these guys were built with GW plastic glue and not glorious clean Gorilla glue which would have made my life much easier...)

Bear in mind the goal isn't to make these guys look like a particular nation's army but to rather marry the highlights of modern soldier aesthetic into 40k (Sorta like Elysians).

I'll be armoring up their fore-arms and hands with plasticard (I hate working with greenstuff even though the benefits are wondrous). I might do knee-pads as well. Otherwise they look too squishy to have a 4+ save.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more hodge-podge stormtroopers (Can't wait until they're undercoated to hide the Frankenstein stage)!

I'll also eventually be overhauling a simple 1/48 HIND into a Vendetta by fattening it up with plasticard, adding wings, and slapping lascannons on it as well.

Project update! [PICTURE HEAVY]

Got my first fire-team assembled out of the old IG that were unpainted (Note that plasticard arm/hand armor is to come).



Ta-da! Getting the heads on was a little bit of a pain as I was popping off old Cadian ones and left with years-old, caked GW plastic glue (Seriously if you see someone new to the hobby walk into the store and see them try and buy that tripe you go slap it out of their hands. Gorilla super glue or bust!) but I managed. Here's some close-ups:





And the glory-kill stormtrooper! I'll be green-stuffing some entrails and whatnot on the CSM's nonexistant bottom-half.







I added some pock-marks for las-shot impacts. There's one in the left eye as well that'll need some more work to stand out. I'm not a fan of the grouping either: Get back to the target range, trooper!

Other progress includes the first scrub of the other 15 Guardsmen to come (Credit to green cleaner and nylon wire brushes). I'll let them soak another day or two while I wait for a more pinpoint brush for the hard-to-get corners and maybe some more of their old undercoat will peel off.

Just waiting on some plasma guns to equip on a brand new squad of IG that just arrived though I'll hold off on assembling them until their guns come in.

Look great mate, keep going

Looking sharp - can't wait to see more!

Thanks so much guys!

Brief update, just got the other 18 fugly painted IG out of their Green Cleaner bath and (After two rounds of nylon brushing, bathing for another 24 hours, and brushing again) they're just about clean enough to start whacking heads off.



The two un-pictured flamers fared okay: One lost an arm, the other popped off his base. But hey, I gotta take their arms off anyhow. Lot of work but saved myself a good $25ish (Bought the lot for $25).

This upcoming week I'd like to try and build two or three a day, then it'll be off to undercoating! I still need to figure out what tool is best for precision plasticard cutting: I haven't gotten the armor figured out.



... But if Inquisitorial Stormtroopers are anything to go by, I can get away with just throwing on some fore-arm armor and little squares for their hands. I'd rather not bother playing with leg armor if I can help it.

Hey all!

Radio silence was ongoing as I transitioned from full-time work into school-but-still-working-almost-full-time. It's been tricky figuring out what days are free to do my stuff.

Thankfully today was empty so I butchered some old IG and converted them pretty successfully!



I'm realizing I haven't washed my resin parts in warm, soapy water per the norm. Woops.

Right now I'm stuck for finding a tool that cuts plasticard accurately and need some help! I'd very much like to just slap a rectangular square on their upper legs and call it a day, but I don't have anything that can cut such a small piece cleanly. :/

Dude these look great, very good proxies for Elysians.

But I think you'll have a way easier time using green stuff instead of card for armor on limbs.

You can just roll it out flat and when it's partially cured you can very easily cut it with an exacto, then it'll bend much easier and form to the arm or leg better.

Thanks! Yeah I may have to just cope with greenstuff for body armor. I hate working with it but plasticard may be significantly more difficult to cut out and glue.

My project is currently at a little bit of a break as I wait for my long overdue plasma gun shipment. I'm hoping it wasn't swallowed in the angry maw of the shipping gods: I need them to continue as I'll have about 12 Scions with plasma guns altogether in my army list.

That and I've put my army list down for review so I don't have to backpedal any conversions. The idea of modifying Revell HINDs as much as I want to sounds outside my skill level and a lot more time consuming than I'd like. I'd much rather spend less and just modify cheap Russian toys that are the right size into alternate Taurox Primes.

The plasma guns finally made it! Cracked open my fresh box of Cadian minis and threw together the first of 12 needed plasma gunners.





While it was nice to work with fresh, clean minis instead of going Frankenstein on the old badly glued ones, I just have to get this off my chest: The Cadian infantry box has GOT to be GW's most bland kit. Ever. I love the Guard but holy crap, there's SO little room for customization without having to fully kitbash. It's honestly a rip for money value, too, their other kits in the same range (Dark Eldar infantry, for instance) have SO many more options and depth.

Customizing these plasma gunners is going to take a lot of time. I only have enough special weapon arms to build 5 or 6 more. This guy was made with a laspistol hand because I needed to see how well it would work, this might let me build a few more. I didn't want to go bitz shopping anymore but I might have to...

Tempestus Prime update!

My vehicle order came a month earlier than expected (A very welcome surprise) and I've started mapping out how I plan to convert them.

The vehicles are those ultra cheap Russian Bronekorpus tanks by Tehnolog. I got 3, each was about $8. There's very few left that I can see on the US eBay, so I may end up being unable to expand my army's tempestor prime fleet (Which is okay since I don't plan to exceed 1,000 points and really would like to fill my remaining 250 points with DeathWatch achor troops anyways).

The tank normally (Without the turret attached, since I'm converting these to APC's and not LR's)



How I plan to assemble the tank as an alternate Tempestus Prime



I'll be adding some aquila's and the like along the side and shave off the studs (Right now they're just there for measurement).

For the turret (as it'll have the Tempestus battle cannon as well as two auto-cannons), I'm thinking of getting Razorback turrets and arming them with the auto-cannons for a suitably modern APC look that fits with my army's theme.

However, I'm not sure how to stick a Tempestus battle cannon on yet. I suppose I could just use the turret that came with the vehicle and appropriately modify its armament (Shaving the dual minigun turret down to one and modifying the barrel)






At first I thought it looked a little too tall, but then I saw an image of a Tempestus Prime beside a Stormtrooper and realized it's not too tall after all.

I also plan on using some card stock to fill out the tank's bottom compartment. It's a very short hull and a little stretch of the imagination to picture 12 people fitting inside (Not that GW vehicles are always that accurate anyways).

I have exactly the same set up on my Guard just minus the sights on top of the las guns. My stuffs in storage just now but I'll try & get a few pics sorted.

I'd love to see them!

I cobbled together my second plasma gun, glad I got it to work using lasgun arms (Since I'm short on arms that can actually be converted easily)





And settled on how my Tempestor Prime alternates will be designed (Track and height-wise. Still not sure how I'm going to do the turret)



I think it looks much better on the eyes with the tracks set up like that and the front plate rotated upwards.

I've used a mix of the heads with respirators & the guys without. I do wish they'd cast the same heads but without the helmet covers so I could have a mix of colours on their heads. Mine are 3 tone Brown camo with grey chest armour & shoulders. A few grey helmets would look good as well.

What colour are you painting the helmet lenses? I did mine in red & don't like it, I feel a repaint coming when I get the mojo to start again.

That sounds really interesting actually I'm curious to see them (I haven't settled on a scheme quite yet)! All I've decided is that I'm going to paint the helmet visors in blue for sure.

For their armor I'm not sure if I'm going to do black armor with gray fatigues, or sand-colored armor with khaki fatigues (I discovered Krylon's camouflage spray paint and it's amazing as a base and first layer, plus they offer khaki+sand colors).

It sucks coming from a long hiatus only to basically say that I have to under ANOTHER long hiatus as my only build/paint area is otherwise occupied from construction. Not to mention I still need some spare moolah to actually buy the newly-released IG Codex.

But at any rate I jumped the gun and started seeing what basecoat I'd prefer! I'm not sure if I'm going to paint these guys in a muted dark gray fatigues with dark navy armor, or take an Afrika Korps approach with sand-colored fatigues and bleached bone colored armor. The visors would be painted in a glossy black or smoky black, respectively.

Anyhow, here's both fellows. I'm testing Krylon's camouflage Sand (The lighter of the two and Krylon's camouflage Khaki (The darker). I must say my stormtroopers look a lot better after an undercoat!

Both


Krylon camouflage Sand



Krylon camouflage Khaki

Looks good! A "modern" style theme was one I considered before deciding to gun for something Soviet-esque. I rather like those helmets, and considered using them for "Stormtroopers" as well.

(I'm waiting on some from PIP but the Kolony Militia ones)

You seem to have missed some flash on the back of the white-sprayed guy's arm, though!

M.

 NoIAMDirtyDan wrote:
Tempestus Prime update!

My vehicle order came a month earlier than expected (A very welcome surprise) and I've started mapping out how I plan to convert them.

The vehicles are those ultra cheap Russian Bronekorpus tanks by Tehnolog. I got 3, each was about $8. There's very few left that I can see on the US eBay, so I may end up being unable to expand my army's tempestor prime fleet (Which is okay since I don't plan to exceed 1,000 points and really would like to fill my remaining 250 points with DeathWatch achor troops anyways).

The tank normally (Without the turret attached, since I'm converting these to APC's and not LR's)



How I plan to assemble the tank as an alternate Tempestus Prime



I'll be adding some aquila's and the like along the side and shave off the studs (Right now they're just there for measurement).

For the turret (as it'll have the Tempestus battle cannon as well as two auto-cannons), I'm thinking of getting Razorback turrets and arming them with the auto-cannons for a suitably modern APC look that fits with my army's theme.

However, I'm not sure how to stick a Tempestus battle cannon on yet. I suppose I could just use the turret that came with the vehicle and appropriately modify its armament (Shaving the dual minigun turret down to one and modifying the barrel)






At first I thought it looked a little too tall, but then I saw an image of a Tempestus Prime beside a Stormtrooper and realized it's not too tall after all.

I also plan on using some card stock to fill out the tank's bottom compartment. It's a very short hull and a little stretch of the imagination to picture 12 people fitting inside (Not that GW vehicles are always that accurate anyways).

Where did you buy those tanks sir? I'm broke as *** and buying 3 for 8$ would come in handy


Automatically Appended Next Post:
do you plant to make some chimeras with the russian toys?

I was very lucky to find them on eBay! They're quite a bit harder to find than I first thought. If you search up "Bronekorpus" or "Tehnolog" something should turn up! They have a variety of tanks but they're all vaguely the same and if you plan on adding weapon bits I don't think what weapons it comes with matter too much!

Here's the ones I got though from a different seller (Who ran out) < https://www.ebay.com/i/122811768608?chn=ps&dispctrl=1 >

And another kind < https://www.ebay.com/i/122811769054?chn=ps&dispctrl=1 >

 NoIAMDirtyDan wrote:
I was very lucky to find them on eBay! They're quite a bit harder to find than I first thought. If you search up "Bronekorpus" or "Tehnolog" something should turn up! They have a variety of tanks but they're all vaguely the same and if you plan on adding weapon bits I don't think what weapons it comes with matter too much!

Here's the ones I got though from a different seller (Who ran out) < https://www.ebay.com/i/122811768608?chn=ps&dispctrl=1 >

And another kind < https://www.ebay.com/i/122811769054?chn=ps&dispctrl=1 >

Ty and work hard, i want to see those IG and tanks

hey check this, might come in handy fo the IG army

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/739618-28mm,%20Alternative,%20Astra%20Militarum,%20Cheap,%20Imperial%20Guard,%20Leman,%20Russ.html

and
http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php

on the parts section the cheapest turrets, rino style are 4euro

puig2233 wrote:
hey check this, might come in handy fo the IG army

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/739618-28mm,%20Alternative,%20Astra%20Militarum,%20Cheap,%20Imperial%20Guard,%20Leman,%20Russ.html

and
http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php

on the parts section the cheapest turrets, rino style are 4euro

Dude thanks so much! I've been having a time and a half trying to find Rhino-style turrets for these vehicles that weren't like $10 or $15 a pop! These seem like they should blend easily enough, especially after I slap on some autocannons and aquillas.

 NoIAMDirtyDan wrote:

puig2233 wrote:
hey check this, might come in handy fo the IG army

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/739618-28mm,%20Alternative,%20Astra%20Militarum,%20Cheap,%20Imperial%20Guard,%20Leman,%20Russ.html

and
http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php

on the parts section the cheapest turrets, rino style are 4euro

Dude thanks so much! I've been having a time and a half trying to find Rhino-style turrets for these vehicles that weren't like $10 or $15 a pop! These seem like they should blend easily enough, especially after I slap on some autocannons and aquillas.

im gonna get the turrets when the toy tanks come vailable on ebay. The rhebok turret from ramshacklegames will get you the turrent and extra flamers/guns for magnetizing or more firepower
wip pictures?

Also ataching scratchbuild metal barrels to the back of the tanks might look cool

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day proved quite productive!

I got my remaining 10 plasma gunners properly converted and built. After hours trying to figure out if I could just green-stuff my own gauss death-tubes and just run them as plasma guns, I realized I had a trove of Space Marine Scout arms which conveniently were outstretched just enough that my fat Plasma Guns could actually fit in their hands.

The fluff excuse is that my stormtroopers wear more armor/padding on the arm holding the plasma gun because, well, you know.

Here's a quick shot of my almost 30 stormtroopers!



And a close-up of two of my plasma gunners. Because of the frustrating lack of good left arms in the IG kit and the nonexistant left arms for Scouts, some of my stormtroopers are a little excited about coming out to play and brought their machetes with them.


I just need to quickly convert the 3 vox-casters I have and then spindle up 5 more grunts! But before I get to my vehicles I have to figure out my HQ. My army list currently has 2 Tempestor Primes armed with shouty-sticks and accompanied by 4 additional stormtroopers each, but I'm not sure if I'll run my army list like that. I might axe a command squad entirely and ally in some SoBs or shoe-horn in my Deathwatch kill-team which I've already got the bits for. We'll see!